January 8th, 2008 Benjamin Horst
Rumor has it Shuttle is entering the market for inexpensive Linux-based computers.
The Inquirer writes, “When you don’t have to pay the MS monopoly tax, you save a huge chunk of money from your Bill of Materials (BoM). When you don’t have to support MeII [Vista, I guess?], you can provide the same user experience with a lot lower hardware spec. That saves more money.”
Looking further, I have not yet found any definitive announcements. But other blogs are picking up the scent and looking for answers:
“Unfortunately, no further information is currently available on Shuttle’s new system. It’s unclear what form factor the system will be, what the specs will be or what version of Linux it will be running.”
I think this, along with the gPC, Asus’ Eee PC, Nokia 810, the OLPC XO, and other similar products are the beginning of a seismic shift. The low-cost end of the market will abandon Windows in favor of Linux over the next year or two. And that will eventually grow to become the bulk of the market: this is going to be fascinating to watch!
Posted in GNU/Linux, Open Source | Comments Off on Shuttle’s New <$200 Linux PC
January 7th, 2008 Benjamin Horst
Ulteo, a new startup founded by Gaël Duval, has launched a web-based version of OpenOffice.org that can be accessed from any web browser.
In addition to OOo’s huge featureset, this version adds realtime collaboration, Google Docs-style:
“As well as offering instant ‘no-install’ access, Ulteo’s service also provides OpenOffice.org users with instant collaboration capabilities. A user working with OpenOffice.org on the Ulteo server can invite other people to work with him or her on a shared document in real time.”
However, its base featureset is larger, and hence the press release can realistically make the following claim: “With Ulteo, OpenOffice.org becomes the de facto best online productivity suite. It is standards based, mature, with lots of features.”
Posted in OpenOffice.org | 1 Comment »
January 5th, 2008 Benjamin Horst
Erwin Tenhumberg points out two articles on new OOo adoptions in Israel and Vietnam.
Haaretz.com reports on an agreement between Sun and the Israeli education system to supply OpenOffice.org and Linux to schools. This marks a major change in Israel, which has been a staunch user of almost exclusively Microsoft software to date:
“According to a computer teacher in a Tel Aviv high school, “even though the software world offers a multitude of alternatives, to date we have used Microsoft products almost exclusively. That is very frustrating, not least because in some cases the open source developments are better than those of the closed source.”
Vietnam is moving aggressively to migrate to OpenOffice for its government employees, and also promote it in the private sector:
“The majority of computers made in Vietnam have now started to come put with the Linux operating system to pave the way for spreading the usage of open source software in the country,” says Pham Thien Nghe, chairman of the Vietnam Computer Producers Club and director of Khai Tri Company.
“Khai Tri will produce 15,000 PCs this year, and up to 10,000 of which are installed with Linux to supply State agencies and education institutions. The remainder will be supplied to small- and medium-sized enterprises, and within this smaller segment, users will decide which operating system to be installed.”
Posted in Open Source, OpenOffice.org | 1 Comment »
January 3rd, 2008 Benjamin Horst
The Economic Times of India reports “Efforts to promote open source software gather momentum,” as more companies, universities and governments adopt open source software including Linux, OpenOffice.org, and other programs:
“India’s computing space is witnessing a shift towards free software as more and more people are drifting away from proprietary products due to their exorbitant prices, security issues and restrictions on usage, according to experts.”
Meanwhile, The Open Press (a press release distributor) announces another major Philippine company has adopted FOSS in “Philippine Construction Company Shifts to Linux for Cost-Effective Infrastructure.”
“EEI Corporation, one of the Philippines’ leading construction companies, has opted to shift to Linux for their operating system (OS), joining several other industry giants in the country who have already turned to open source.
“Due to increasing costs of licensing, the company started considering open source applications in order to minimize expenses.
“Other concerns, such as virus infection and the increasing cost of hardware also became factors as to why we decided to use Linux,” said Mr. Andy S. Sarmiento, assistant vice president for the MIS department.
“EEI Corporation is only one of several industry giants in the Philippines which are already using Linux and open source software. Other firms include Jollibee Foods Corporation, Mercury Drug Corporation, International Family Foods Services (Shakey’s) and Nippon Paint Philippines Inc. Several schools, notably the University of the Philippines, are also making use of open source in place of proprietary systems.”
Posted in GNU/Linux, Open Source, OpenOffice.org | Comments Off on FOSS Successes in India and the Philippines
January 2nd, 2008 Benjamin Horst
Slashdot reports on Microsoft Office’s removal of support for certain older file formats.
This is a perfect example of one of the most important reasons to use open data formats: proprietary software makers can cease support for closed formats any time they wish! Only if a file is saved in an open format can it be considered accessible in the future, since it will remain legally and technically possible to build new tools, if it comes to that, to access the archived data.
Posted in Free Culture | Comments Off on Slashdot on File Formats
December 31st, 2007 Benjamin Horst
The Education project within OpenOffice.org has been restarted recently and is showing a flurry of activity. One of its members has been developing how-to video tutorials for OpenOffice with her students (in Austria). The tutorials are available in several languages, including English, so they should be useful to a global audience.
Posted in OpenOffice.org | Comments Off on OpenOffice.org Educational Videos
December 28th, 2007 Benjamin Horst
Polishlinux.org (referring to the country, not a high level of shine) publishes “Ubuntu Linux vs Windows Vista: The Desktop Battle.”
Author Borys Musielak begins, “It may be a brave opinion but I predict that Ubuntu Linux and Windows Vista are going to be the two operating systems that will take over the largest chunk of the desktop OS market during the next couple of years.”
I guess the brave part of the prediction is that Vista will get any significant adoption! (If not for OEM preinstallations, Vista would be gone already.)
Poland is quickly becoming a software powerhouse, and open source is very strong there (it has one of the highest rates of Firefox usage in Europe and the entire world, at over 41% market share), so I am sure Musielak’s prediction is correct for his local market, and many others around the world.
In terms of user interface, Musielak puts the two systems on equal footing, which means that one of Linux’ longstanding shortcomings is gone. In terms of adding software, Ubuntu wins because of its Synaptic Package Manager. The author wonders why there’s no package manager for Windows. As do I.
Hardware support, robustness, flexibility and advanced features were all compared, and in the end, the author prefers Ubuntu by a statistically-significant margin.
Without its special OEM relationships, Windows would be crashing and burning right now, just like IE in Europe. Even with this huge advantage, its dominance is eroding in a process that will accelerate faster and faster.
Posted in GNU/Linux, Open Source | 1 Comment »
December 27th, 2007 Benjamin Horst
Asus’ Linux-based Eee PC has exceeded its 2007 sales goal by more than 50,000 units, writes Linux Loop.
“Over 350,000 Eee PCs have been sold so far since the release in mid October, according to Tech Digest. This is already 50,000 over the original goal of 300,000 units sold by the end of 2007… the success of the Eee PC shows other hardware manufacturers that there is a market for computers with Linux on them that is worth getting into.”
How does this compare with Dell’s half-hearted efforts to sell Ubuntu Linux machines? While Dell’s Ubuntu sales are good, the Eee blows them away:
“To put the 350,000 number in perspective, Dell is thought to have sold 40,000 Ubuntu PCs over a period of about 5 months, according to The Register. This is about 8,000 per month compared to about 175,000 Eee PCs per month.”
Posted in GNU/Linux | 1 Comment »
December 26th, 2007 Benjamin Horst
A cool librarian from Vermont, Jessamyn West, demonstrates how easy it is to install Ubuntu on donated computers for use in her town’s library. The two new Ubuntu machines have doubled the library’s public computers, and brought Linux to 50% marketshare over the course of an hour!
(This was posted in the beginning of the year, but I only got a chance to see the video recently.)
Posted in Free Culture, GNU/Linux | Comments Off on Ubuntu at the Library
December 20th, 2007 Benjamin Horst
Virtuelvis translates a Norwegian government announcement that from January 1, 2009, it will require government offices to use ODF, PDF and HTML for publishing documents online.
“Goverment, state and regional agencies, authorities and services may also publish in other formats, but they must always publish in one of these formats. The decree is retroactive, and by 2014 all documents published prior to this decree must have been converted and made available in one of the three formats.”
Posted in Free Culture, ODF | Comments Off on Norway Mandates Open Formats